New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during a news conference on the expansion of the NYPD ShotSpotter gunfire-detection system in New York March 16, 2015 (Reuters / Shannon Stapleton) / Reuters

It’s been almost a week since New York Police Department deployed a new ShotSpotter gunshot detection system. However, the innovation has raised privacy concerns among New Yorkers while tracking loud bangs, the system records private conversations.

Questions arose after New York Police Department deployed 300
hidden microphone sensors around the city. They are aimed at
identifying the sound of gun shots, and then activate nearby
cameras and immediately alert law enforcement officials.

The two-year pilot program will cost New York a total of
$1.5million annually.

Both the mayor Bill de Blasio and police commissioner William
Bratton say that ShotSpotter should help officers to respond more
quickly to shootings. According to statistics, in 75 percent of
cases when people hear a gun shot sound, they do not report it to
the police.

The ShotSpotter is aimed at fixing that. Its sensors are
connected to thousands of cameras set up around the city as part
of the its Domain Awareness System, an all-seeing
intelligence-analysis complex that collects and analyzes data
captured by surveillance cameras, gunshot detectors, license
plate readers, Geographic Information Systems mapping and social
media feeds.

Four years ago the department tested another system, but rejected
the technology, as it could not identify the difference between
real gunfire and similar sounds, like a car backfiring. Today’s
system is said to be more sensitive.

Police commissioner William Bratton, who used to be a member of
ShotSpotter’s board of directors, before returning to the NYPD in
January 2014, says in the future, ShotSpotter will be able to
identify which type of a gun was used, and whether multiple shots
were fired from different guns.

But the system and especially how capable it is of recording
people’s voices has raised serious privacy concerns.

“The concern is that if conversations are capable of being
intercepted, that’s a bigger problem. That’s like a Big Brother.
And that’s not about one’s safety that’s just now meddling
everyday conversations of people. And the question is what police
is going to do with those conversations?” lawyer Frank
Camera told RT.

In January, Camera defended two people arrested after a loud
street quarrel ended with fatal shooting the previous month. They
were detained and accused, with the ShotSpotter recording of the
altercation – in which both men can be heard arguing – likely to
be used as evidence.

Camera says the talk was recorded very clearly, while the
detecting system was aimed only for gunshots.

Devices have been installed across 15 square miles in New York
districts with both the highest rate of shots fired and gunshot
victims. But what disturbs ordinary New York residents is that
it’s unclear exactly where they are placed. A draft law approved
by New York City Council obliges police to make quarterly reports
specifying what exactly ShotSpotters recorded. And it’s still
unknown if and how his information will be used later.